WH Touts June Jobs Report - As Record Number Drops Out Of Labor Force

Despite 288,000 jobs created in June, number of Americans dropping out of labor force hits record 92.1 million

The June jobs report is out and the White House is jumping on the higher-than-estimated number, a welcome break in what has been a brutal news cycle for the administration over the last few weeks.

The report: an estimated 262,000 private sector jobs created in June (288,000 including public sector), totaling over 1.4 million in 2014 and 9.7 million in the last 52 months. Despite the gains, however, the number of Americans no longer participating in the labor force reached a new high in June at over 92 million.

Our businesses have added: 9.7 million jobs over 52 months ✔ More than 1.4 million this year ✔ 262,000 in June ✔ → pic.twitter.com/yqb4kdD2fF

Forbes provides a breakdown of the positive economic numbers, including the DOW topping 17,000 and upward adjustments of the jobs reports from both May and April:

Employers added 288,000 jobs in June, significantly more than the 215,000 economists were anticipating. The unemployment rate, which is drawn from a different survey of households, dropped from 6.3% to 6.1% the lowest rate since September 2008.

Immediately following the news the S&P 500, The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite were in the green, continuing positive trends seen leading up to the pre-bell release. The Dow crossed 17,000 for the first time ever seconds after the opening bell before settling around 17,050.

The May payroll number was revised up from plus 217,000 jobs to plus 224,000.April’s employment number was also revised from 282,000 jobs added to 304,000. Total employment gains those months were therefore 29,000 higher than BLS — a division of the Department of Labor — previously reported. Job growth averaged 272,000 for the last three months.

As Forbes notes, however, despite the 6.1% unemployment rate, the labor force participation rate remained stagnant for the third month in a row at an abysmal 62.8%, with a record 92,120,000 Americans no longer looking for work. One other disappointment was that hourly earnings only gained .2%, raising the yearly increase to just 2%.

News over the last few weeks has not been kind to the administration, including a complete meltdown at the border, major rebukes of the president by the Supreme Court, and, perhaps the most unsettling, revised Q1 numbers showing the GDP shrinking by 2.9% (the worst performance since the recession).